Why did I just do that?
It’s a question you’ve probably asked yourself before. In a best-case scenario, you may have looked back on a poor decision with a facepalm, shake of the head, or heavy sigh. Other times, your mistakes have left you feeling disappointed, disgusted, and maybe even ashamed of yourself.
What you did was wrong, and you know it. Hopefully, but how do you know, and why do you feel so convicted by the things you’ve done?
There are a couple of answers to that question that the Bible succeeds in answering. Perhaps your knowledge of the Word of God has exposed the sin in your life and convicted you of your wrongdoing (Hebrews 4:12). Perhaps the Law of God, which the Bible says is living and active and written on our hearts, has stirred your conscience (Romans 2:12-16). Perhaps both.
Whether Christian or not, why do we so often hate the things we’ve done? Furthermore, why do we keep doing what we know is wrong and what do we do about it?
The apostle Paul addressed these issues in his letter to the Roman church.
What Is the Context of Paul Saying What I Hate I Do?
Few individuals did more to spread the gospel during the first century than the apostle Paul. Traveling throughout the Mediterranean world, Paul helped plant numerous churches and would frequently check in with believers in those churches throughout his ministry. When he couldn’t minister to the church in person, Paul would often write letters.
Of course, the content and purpose of Paul’s letters (or epistles) vary. In some instances, Paul needed to write to correct specific doctrinal or behavioral issues that had arisen in the church. Other times, he would pen letters to encourage the believers in those cities or thank them for supporting him in his ministry.
However, Paul’s letter to the Roman church falls into a unique category, as it was neither written to confront doctrinal issues nor to follow up with a church he’d already visited. In fact, when he penned his famous epistle, Paul had yet to visit Rome. So why write to the Roman church at all?
During his travels, Paul had heard incredible things about the church in Rome. He had expressed a desire to visit Rome and partner with its believers (Acts 19:21). Though the Holy Spirit had delayed Paul’s visit, his heart for the Roman church continued to grow. Therefore, around 57 A.D., while he was living in Greece (Acts 20:3-6), Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, preparing them for his inevitable arrival.
In Paul’s letter, however, we also find one of the clearest and most applicable outlines of the doctrine of salvation, sanctification, and grace in the entire Bible.
In one passage, Paul famously wrote, “I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15).
But what did he mean by this?
It’s important first to identify who Paul was addressing in this moment.
Though Paul was not writing to an exclusively Jewish or Gentile audience, he nonetheless anticipated and even answered many of the questions his Jewish readers had regarding Old Testament law and its relationship to their new faith in Jesus Christ.
Naturally, many Jewish Christians wondered if God’s standard for morality and righteous living, often referred to as the Law in Scripture, was now obsolete because of the grace offered through Jesus Christ. If so, what purpose did the law serve in the lives of individual believers, Jewish or otherwise?
Paul answered this question by addressing humanity’s sad, sinful state and why, despite the law bringing conviction, the law itself cannot deliver or save us from our sins. Only a perfect, redeeming savior can do that. Thankfully, in Jesus Christ, one has been provided. Furthermore, Paul explains why Christians struggle with sinful desires despite being redeemed.
Why Are We Slaves to Sins?
In Romans 7, Paul explains how the law of God exposes our sinful nature, cutting through any illusion we might have that we are inherently good or capable of measuring up to God’s standard of righteousness on our own. While the law itself is holy and spiritual, Paul reminded his readers that we are not. Rather, he writes, “I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin”(Romans 7:14). The New Living translation describes this kind of bondage as being “enslaved to sin.” As The Message words it, Paul had spent a long time in, “sin’s prison.”
In writing to the church in Rome, a city with a large slave population, Paul was fully aware of the implications of using the language of slavery and bondage to describe sin’s hold over the individual. The spiritual parallels, however, are appropriate.
Because of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, all of Adam’s descendants have inherited his curse and are born into sin. As a result, humanity naturally yields to sin’s power. Paul would argue that we are not just influenced by sin. We are enslaved to it, born into bondage to a master we are incapable of freeing ourselves from.
No matter how good we think we are, Paul reminded his readers that all are sinful. He went on to quote the Psalms in declaring, “there is no righteous person, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks out God; they have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, there is not even one” (Romans 3:10-12, emphasis added).
Furthermore, Paul writes earlier in Romans that “allhave sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 emphasis added).
Unfortunately, even though most people accept that they are imperfect, few are capable of recognizing just how sinful they are apart from God. Here is where God’s Word comes into play.
How Does God’s Law Help Us Understand Sin?
Many of Paul’s Jewish readers questioned what role the law played in the lives of Christians—who, after all, have come to Christ by faith and been redeemed by God’s grace, not works. Was the law now obsolete? Not so fast, Paul argued.
“I would not have come to know sin except through the Law,” Paul wrote to the Roman church, “for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet” (Romans 7:7). Paul also wrote earlier in Romans that, “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).
Thanks to grace, Christ’s followers are no longer bound to the old covenant or the condemnation brought by the law (Romans 7:6). Though the law does not save us from our sins, it provides important instruction, illumination, and the God-given standard of morality by which humanity’s desires and actions are judged.
The law’s standard exposes just how ungodly, unrighteous, and ugly our lives really are. Those who hate what they do, understand, through the work of the Law and Holy Spirit, that their thoughts and actions “fall short,” “miss the mark,” and deviate from God’s standard of holiness. Their conscience exposes their sin and the desires and behavior that God Himself hates (Proverbs 6:16-19). Hopefully, this leads them to the foot of the cross, the one source of true salvation.
The Word of God provides knowledge of sin to a world blinded to the reality of its sin and the consequence (Hosea 4:6).
Can We Become Free from Sin on Our Own?
With sin comes a penalty and a price everyone must pay. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), Paul writes. It is a death that has reigned since the time of Adam (Romans 5:14). This is the doctrine of condemnation (Romans 5:18-21).
Unfortunately, while the law works to expose our sin and convict us of unrighteousness, recognizing sin and hating the things we’ve done is not enough to change our hearts or redeem us. As Matthew Henry writes in his commentary, the law alone cannot “conquer or subdue” sin. That’s not its job.
So what can?
Under the law, all of us are swiftly condemned by our sin. Furthermore, the law exposes our fleshly desires and how wholly incapable of living up to God’s standard of righteousness. Yet, as helpless as we are to free ourselves from sin under our own power, we are not without hope. That hope has a name.
How Does Jesus Free Us from Sin?
The idea of someone freeing themself from addiction, depression, poor health, or financial instability has always been cheered on and celebrated. However, humans cannot earn salvation, change, or win God’s approval by effort or good works when it comes to sin. Despite what other religious systems promise, nothing we do will ever earn our way to heaven or deliver us from the consequences of our sin, which Scripture says we were once dead in (Romans 6:11).
We have all broken God’s perfect law, transgressed, and fallen short of the glory of God. We are guilty, and with our guilt comes a horrible sentence.
However, the price we are required to pay for our sin (death), Jesus Christ instead paid on our behalf. Scripture says that He who knew no sin, who adhered perfectly to the law where we had failed, took our sin upon Himself. He paid the penalty for our sin so that we might be reconciled to the Father and made righteous through Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Therefore, Paul writes, “there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4 emphasis added).
Once dead in our sin, we who have been saved are now alive in Christ (Romans 6:11). Once separated from God, we have been adopted as the Father’s sons and heirs (Romans 8:15-16).
To those who accept the free gift of salvation, we have now been born again (John 3:3-8), made new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), and transformed into Christ’s likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Does this mean we will never sin? Of course not. Paul argued that Christians can still make mistakes because our new, godly nature is at war with our old, sinful nature, which fights to reclaim its control over our lives. We recognize our sin because the law is at work within us, convicting us of an unrighteous life we once clung to. Now, however, our sinful self has been crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). We have been set free (Romans 8:2) and are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6-7) but to righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 6:18-20).
As a man who desired holiness, Paul hated his sin because he longed to be more like Christ. Though sin often shows up in one’s life, it is no longer master over those who belong to Christ. “Who will set me free from the body of this death?”Paul asked,“thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/fizkes
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